Nikon D800 Battery grip MB-D12: Real vs. counterfeit vs. third party

I'm a part-time event photographer. The grip became my best friend after the body itself ever since I've used it on D700. It was used when I bought the D700 and it was a great deal at $150. So when the D800 came out with MB-D12 for $600+, it was an easy decision that I'd wait for third party grip. I'll cover 2 items in this write up:
1. What made me think third party grip not worth the investment.
2. The different between grips (real/third party/counterfeit)


I bought Meike for $60s from ebay. It was good for about a year and started to give me problems.
1. The grip itself started to get loose from the camera even after the screw was tighten all the way in.
2. Because of the loose grip, its movement started to scratch the camera's bottom edge in certain places.
3. The plastic dial that's used to turn the screw to lock is no longer in sync with the screw. The dial can be turned but the screw will not move at all. This make it hard to put it on or even worse cannot take it off.

Meike MB-D12 grip for Nikon D800. It has gap at the dial which leave room for it to come down and not locking to the actual screw to perform screw or unscrew action.

Genuine Nikon MB-D12 for Nikon D800 with no gap

Meike MB-D12 grip for Nikon D800. After open up Meike grip, I found out one of the four screw broke off. Of course the plastic could not handle the weight of the camera and lens. This lead too the problems I mentioned above.

 After this I decided to buy genuine Nikon MB-D12. Little did I know, there are counterfeit Nikon MB-D12 on ebay. I said counterfeit and not third party because it has all marking, labeling, and boxes, manual that say Nikon all over it. The only different is it's made of plastic. It's hard to tell. You can see varieties of these counterfeit on ebay range from $80 - $200. So I decided to try out the $80 version. and $200 version. $80 counterfeit version would say this is not genuine and ship from China. $200 version may say "used". Used listing is the only way to void warranty if you have problem. We know warranty does not transfer. And used Nikon has much better value than counterfeit Nikon. Plus used seller doesn't have to be an authorized seller. So if you buy used, make sure ebay seller provide receipt. Better yet don't even get used if you want to buy genuine. Get it new from authorized dealer. I was lucky to be able to return the $200 counterfeit version because it's 99% similar to the $80 version from China.

I tried my best to document the different between the $200 "used" (aka counterfeit) Nikon grip vs. Mieke grip in the series of images below. Similar angle of the grip with Nikon counterfeit on top and Meike bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The following are battery trays of the counterfeit Nikon and Meike. They are no exchangeable. The Left is counterfeit and the right is Meike. Notice how the contact point are opposite. And the AA tray contact points are different too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Over all the counterfeit grip feel very solid, the texture is very close to the genuine. The battery tray is not exchangeable between any version (Meike, counterfeit or genuine).

And it can be hard to tell the different between counterfeit and genuine grip. The box material and lay out is identical. These are the only differences I can see:
1. Chinese characters on adhesive label
2. Text is not clear and sharp on box as well as manual
3. Counterfeit has a soft rubber compare to genuine
4. Battery tray pouch has the word Nikon emboss not as clean as genuine.

 

Counterfeit box has this Chinese label on it

 

 

Counterfeit box has this Chinese label on it

 

 

 

 

 

Counterfeit has a soft grip

Genuine has harder plastic grip

Update: I forgot to mention that I decided to get genuine grip from B&H. The counterfeit seem to works fine for awhile and it would start locking up the camera after about 200 shot. I'm not sure why but after I put in the genuine it never happens again.